The combative broadcaster’s memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career with some score-settling and a robust defence of his interviewing styleJohn Humphrys is the first to admit he doesn’t deal well with authority. He inherited it from his father, who refused to use the service entrance at the grand houses where he worked as a French polisher and, as a child, once watched his aunt get a humiliating dressing-down from the vicar for missing church. Humphrys had his own brush with condescending authority figures when he was in hospital with a cyst on his spine at 13, and an “arrogant posh bastard consultant” told his retinue of trainees it was because he didn’t wash regularly. “I don’t like being defined or told what to do, whoever is in charge,” he notes, a stance that has proved useful for grilling politicians (he has interviewed eight prime ministers), though it has also landed him in hot water.His memoir mixes engaging snapshots of his early career and analysis of the evolution of broadcasting with diatribes and petty score-settling. The early chapters tell of his passage from teen lackey on the Penarth Times in Wales, where his main task was standing outside the local church taking the names of those attending weddings and funerals, to being the first journalist on the scene at the Aberfan disaster, near Merthyr Tydfil, in which 116 children and 28 adults died after a colliery tip collapsed. Later he became a BBC foreign correspondent, reporting on the 1971 war... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-10-10 06:30:10 UTC ]
Pop culture feeds on romantic couplings, but we all know the truth about who keeps us alive. Our friends, what would ever we do without them? It is passionate platonic friendship that concerns Lilly Dancyger in her second book, First Love: Essays on Friendship. A collection of personal and... Continue reading at Electric Literature
[ Electric Literature | 2024-06-06 11:00:00 UTC ]
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Source Code: My Beginnings, out next year, will include ‘some of the tougher parts’ of the entrepreneur’s early lifeBill Gates has announced that he will be telling his “origin story” in a memoir due to be published next year.Source Code: My Beginnings will cover the businessman and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-06-04 16:02:08 UTC ]
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Reading Anna Akbari’s memoir of online manipulation, you think you’ve seen it all — then you keep reading. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2024-06-04 14:30:08 UTC ]
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Two interlocking thrillers, demonic possession in the suburbs, a Cambodian memoir told through food, and more of today's best book deals. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-06-03 15:00:00 UTC ]
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“As I became more entrenched in the White nationalist movement, I gained more power to cause more harm to people and society in ways I came to deeply regret.” R. Derek Black on the extreme ideology of their upbringing and how young White nationalists are programmed to hate. | Lit Hub Memoir “I... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-30 10:30:30 UTC ]
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A tribute to Paul Auster, featuring Siri Hustvedt, Don DeLillo, JM Coetzee, and more. | Lit Hub “I’ve had to forgive myself for what I chose not to see. For choosing myself.” Nina St. Pierre on understanding and accepting a schizophrenic mother. | Lit Hub Memoir James Shapiro on Willa Cather and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-28 10:30:47 UTC ]
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Caleb Carr, a military historian and bestselling author of "The Alienist," made his last book a touching memoir of life and love with a feline companion. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-26 19:05:41 UTC ]
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This memoir by a gay Appalachian man is about reckoning with a homophobic family but one full of love, forgiveness, and understanding. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-24 13:00:00 UTC ]
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The events will showcase writers and speakers from countries in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa to UK audiences, and feature up-and-coming UK writers selected as part of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists 2023 list.This specially selected event series brings together our work with the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2024-05-24 10:51:02 UTC ]
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I had a conversation recently with a friend whose debut memoir is coming out soon, about the dread he feels at the idea of his father reading his book. I think pretty much every memoirist faces a version of this critical moment—when we have to face the fact that all of the vulnerable, private... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-24 08:55:44 UTC ]
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Poets write some of the best memoirs, and this one will have you feeling like you're in each of these cities. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2024-05-22 11:00:00 UTC ]
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AudioFile recommends 10 excellent new audiobooks for spring, including masterful new works from Hanif Abdurraqib, Percival Everett, and more. Whether you’re looking for a memoir told in the author’s own voice or a fascinating novel performed by professional narrators, you’ll find something... Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2024-05-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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Paul Scheer's memoir-in-essays, 'Joyful Recollections of Trauma,' centers largely around the abuse he and his mother suffered at the hands of his stepfather. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-21 10:00:29 UTC ]
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When my daughter was a year old, my mother handed me a worn-out copy of Pearl S. Buck’s The Child Who Never Grew (1950). The act of giving me this book felt significant, like an inheritance that she passed on to me. She, as the mother of a child with disabilities, passed it on to […] Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-20 08:55:53 UTC ]
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Yesterday, the iconic Riot Grrrl Kathleen Hanna published a memoir with Ecco/HarperCollins. And Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk is already being touted as an “electric, searing” history from one of rock’s biggest icons. Unfortunately, the book has some competition. From a nefarious bevy... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-15 16:58:59 UTC ]
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The Lit Hub Author Questionnaire is a monthly interview featuring seven questions for five authors with new books. This month we talk to: * Noé Álvarez (Accordion Eulogies: A Memoir of Music, Migration, and Mexico) Anna Dorn (Perfume & Pain) Abby Geni (The Body Farm) Aimee Nezhukumatathil... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-14 08:56:57 UTC ]
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“I had assumed my mother had written a novel about real estate—after all the title was A Hot Property…” Kate Feiffer on reading her mother’s x-rated novel and considering female-authored erotica as a form of social critique. | Lit Hub Memoir Jessica Shattuck recommends a reading list of of the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2024-05-13 10:30:32 UTC ]
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Read our reviews of this year's winning works of fiction, general nonfiction, history, biography, and memoir and autobiography. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Atria lands a memoir by ‘Ted Lasso’ costar Brendan Hunt; Viking takes Lindsay Owens’s exploration of price gouging, and more. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2024-05-10 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Before releasing new memoir "Down With the System" on May 14, Tankian spoke about why he's optimistic about Armenia, and whether we might see another album from System of a Down. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2024-05-09 21:29:13 UTC ]
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